Qualitative research study approaches and methods
Qualitative research is type of research approaches which help and make full understanding
of the research phenomena with semi-structural open-ended questions and many other
methods, this method provides full insight with deep understanding to the world problems
by gathering participants experiences, perception toward the problem, and behavior with
attitudes changes or faced. In mixed method which consisted quantitative and qualitative
approaches can clarify more and in-depth analysis of the research problem with research
questions answered by many modalities which give the research more support and guidance
toward solving the
issues.
In the qualitative method the participants express their feelings, thinking process, and their
experiences on an event, but the problem of this type of research is bias and the researchers
feeling may affect the data collection and interference on the analysis which can be solved
by certain criteria during data
collection.
https://youtu.be/l4wdxqq1BQ0
Approaches of qualitative research:
There are many research approaches for qualitative research the research approaches
must be selected properly to enhance understanding about the research study, the
qualitative approaches were as follows:
1 -Historical study which explore extensively about the history of the past by observing
events, checking historical documents, and interviewing with observing peoples which
draw view and conclusion about the present and future based on history.
- Grounded theory is mode of generation of theory by experience and observing
participants of the research study with comprehensive analysis of their behavior,
attitude, and speech. The purpose is to develop theory specially related to social issue by
identifying problems and approaches how to deal with these problems with explaining of
how and why the problem or events appear.
-Phenomenology as it’s study of phenomena with investigation of the experience of
perspectives and careful examination by examining lived experiences and behaviors of
the participants from their perspectives and feelings. As the research outcomes described
from participants point of view and experiences.
-Ethnography is study of specific grouping from same culture which focused on social
and cultural anthropology with put eye on the participants environment with different
data collection methods which give comprehensive understanding with observing of the
social phenomena. This type of research approach makes the researcher to immerse
himself in to research population and draw conclusion with outcomes related to
behaviors, events, actions, etc.
-Case study which used to examine and investigate a person, group, or community used
as bounded theory approach that needed multiple source of data like interview,
observation, and document analysis. The participants must be in unifying factor directly
or indirectly in relation with research questions and solving research problems and the
data collected themes and subthemes can be extracted and analyzed.
-Narrative research is ability to tell story by details with description and putting quotes of
the participants and sequencing event exactly as described which strengthen the
qualitative research study.
The methods used for qualitative research:
There are many methods used for data collection in qualitative researches which are as follows:
-Interview which used in-depth, face-to-face interview that give insight and deep
understanding for their issues and experience.
-Focus group is another method for qualitative data collection which researcher will focus
on group of participants and interview them with observation.
-Observation is little complicated method which can cause bias to the research study and its
not direct method which need focus and attention from researcher to the participants
activities and behaviors to collect data.
-Document analysis by gathering data from printed or electronic documents that needs
careful analysis.
Function and trustworthiness of qualitative research:
The qualitative research work as combination with quantitative can be support
understanding of the research issues which can be solved by using quantitative research
methods and can help in generation of hypothesis and with qualitative method provide clear
view and understanding of research problem and answering research questions. The
qualitative research work as discrete or with quantitative research study. There are some
issues faced when providing qualitative research data which are validity, reliability, and
objectivity, but, credibility, transferability, confirmability, dependability are the related
concepts for the qualitative research study which the internal validity of research can be
seen by credibility, external validity can be checked by transferability, the dependability can
explain the reliability of qualitative research, and the objectivity can recognized by
confirmability.
Advantages and disadvantages of qualitative research:
Advantages of qualitative research:
There were many advantages of qualitative research study which are: flexibility by adapted
the process of data collection, analysis, and new ideas, Natural setting been used in data
collection, generate new ideas when using semi-structural open -ended questions which
generate meaningful insight by describing participants experience, feeling, behaviours, and
perceptions.
Disadvantages of qualitative research:
The disadvantages of qualitative research study with considering limitations in practical and
theories when analyzing the data collected which can be unreliable, subjectivity, and limited
generalizability.
Conclusion:
The qualitative research study can have many dimensions and criteria’s to choose this
type of research study and this blogger explained the approaches, methods, advantages,
disadvantages, and functions with how to identify the trustworthiness of qualitative
research study as it’s the base and building blocks to know how to perform qualitative
research also their were many concepts must be understood as research paradigm, how
to create and understanding data collection, sampling, analysis, software used for data
analysis, developing themes and subthemes related to research question and solving
research problems which can be
explained by next blogger.
References:
Bhandari, P. (2025). What is qualitative research? Methods & examples. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/qualitative-research/
Hoover, L. (2021). 5 qualitative research designs and research
methods. Grand Canyon University. https://www.gcu.edu/blog/doctoral-journey/5-qualitative-research-designs-and-research-methods
İpek, H. (2016). A Qualitative Study on Foreign Language Teaching
Anxiety. Journal of Qualitative Research in Education, 4(3),
1–22. https://doi.org/10.14689/issn.2148-2624.1.4c3s15
Teherani, A., Martimianakis, T., Stenfors-Hayes, T., Wadhwa, A., &
Varpio, L. (2015). Choosing a Qualitative Research Approach. Journal of
Graduate Medical Education, 7(4), 669–670. NCBI.
https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-15-00414.1
Tenny, S., Brannan, J., & Brannan, G. (2022). Qualitative study.
National Library of Medicine; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470395/